Scrum vs Kanban - What's the Difference?

Summary

The video script offers a comprehensive comparison between Scrum and Kanban, two Agile methodologies for software development. It explains the roles of the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Agile Coach, and how they facilitate value delivery and feedback incorporation. The script highlights the pull system in both methodologies, with Scrum utilizing sprints and a Scrum Board, while Kanban operates continuously with work in progress limits. Both systems include daily stand-ups, stakeholder demos, and retrospectives, emphasizing continuous improvement and adaptation to what works best for the team.

Takeaways

• 📝 Agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban are designed to deliver value to customers in small increments and gather feedback for continuous improvement.
• 🔧 The Product Owner in Agile development is responsible for organizing customer and stakeholder input into a prioritized list of features and user stories known as the Product Backlog.
• 👥 Distinct roles in Scrum and Kanban facilitate the process; the Scrum Master in Scrum and the Agile Coach in Kanban help maintain good habits within the team.
• 🔄 Both Scrum and Kanban are pull systems, ensuring work moves from the Product Backlog to the Customer in the shortest time and uncovering bottlenecks for process optimization.
• 🏃‍♂️ Scrum operates in sprints, typically two weeks long, with a Sprint Planning Meeting to select high-priority items for the Sprint Backlog.
• 📋 A Scrum Board (also known as an Agile Board or Kanban Board) is used daily to track the team's progress and identify any blockers during a 15-minute stand-up meeting.
• 🎯 At the end of each Sprint, the work completed is reviewed in a Sprint Review and reflected upon in a Sprint Retrospective to improve the next Sprint's efficiency and effectiveness.
• 🔄 Kanban differs from Scrum in being a continuous process without sprints, utilizing Work In Progress limits on the Kanban board to manage the flow of work.
• 🚀 Pull system in Kanban is activated by moving tickets through columns on the board, signaling when to start new work and when to pull items from the Product Backlog.
• 💡 Both Scrum and Kanban are flexible systems that can be adapted by high-performing teams to suit their specific needs and contexts.

Q & A

What are the two Agile software development methodologies discussed in the video?

The two Agile methodologies discussed are Scrum and Kanban.

How does value get delivered to the customer in Agile software development?

Value is delivered to the customer in small increments with continuous feedback gathered and integrated into the process.

What is the role of the Product Owner in Agile development?

The Product Owner takes input from customers and stakeholders to organize a prioritized list of features and user stories known as the Product Backlog.

What distinguishes Scrum from Kanban in terms of their routines and rituals?

Scrum uses Sprints with a Scrum Master, while Kanban is a continuous process with an Agile Coach.

How does the pull system function in Scrum?

The pull system in Scrum is facilitated through Sprints, where the Development Team selects high-priority items from the Product Backlog to commit to delivering within a single Sprint.

What is the term for the selected items from the Product Backlog in Scrum?

The selected items are known as the Sprint Backlog.

How does the pull system work in Kanban?

The pull system in Kanban operates through Work In Progress limits on the Kanban board, signaling when to pull new tickets from the Product Backlog based on capacity.

What is the purpose of the daily Scrum meeting?

The daily Scrum meeting is a 15-minute stand-up where the team discusses progress and identifies any blockers.

What are the two main rituals at the end of a Scrum Sprint?

The Sprint Review and the Sprint Retrospective are the two main rituals, focusing on demonstrating new functionality and examining improvements for the next Sprint.

How do Scrum and Kanban teams ensure that the next iteration is more efficient?

Through the Sprint Retrospective in Scrum and similar reflective practices in Kanban, teams aim to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

What is the key takeaway regarding the flexibility of Scrum and Kanban?

Neither Scrum nor Kanban are prescriptive; high-performing teams adapt and flex the systems to suit their needs.

How can one access additional information and a cheat sheet on Scrum and Kanban?

Additional information and a cheat sheet can be found on the speaker's blog.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Agile Methodologies: Scrum and Kanban

The paragraph introduces the video's focus on the differences between Scrum and Kanban, two well-known Agile software development methodologies. It mentions a cheat sheet available for download and introduces the speaker, Gary Straughan, and his channel, Development That Pays. The core concept of Agile software development is explained, emphasizing the delivery of value to customers in small increments and the importance of feedback. The role of the Product Owner in organizing customer and stakeholder input into a prioritized list of features and user stories, known as the Product Backlog, is highlighted. The paragraph differentiates between Scrum and Kanban in terms of their routines and rituals, and the roles of the Scrum Master and Agile Coach. It also explains the pull system in Agile methodologies, which aims to deliver work from the Product Backlog to the Customer in the shortest possible time and helps uncover bottlenecks.

Keywords

💡Agile

Agile refers to a group of software development methodologies that promote adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, and continuous improvement. In the context of the video, Agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban are highlighted for their ability to deliver value to customers in small increments and incorporate feedback into the development process.

💡Product Owner

The Product Owner is a key role in Agile methodologies, responsible for representing the stakeholders and customers, and for defining the product features and user stories. They prioritize the list of features, known as the Product Backlog, based on customer value and stakeholder input.

💡Product Backlog

The Product Backlog is a prioritized list of features, enhancements, and bug fixes required to improve a product. It's maintained by the Product Owner and represents the work that the development team will commit to delivering.

💡Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is a facilitator in Scrum, a specific Agile methodology. They help the Product Owner and Development Team to adopt and maintain good habits, ensuring that the Scrum process is followed correctly and that the team is able to work efficiently.

💡Kanban

Kanban is a visual management method and an Agile methodology that focuses on continuous delivery and flow of work items. It uses a Kanban board to visualize the workflow and manage the process, allowing for the identification of bottlenecks and continuous improvement.

💡Pull System

A pull system is a method of managing work where tasks are only pulled from the backlog when the previous task is completed, ensuring that work progresses smoothly and efficiently without overburdening the team. Both Scrum and Kanban implement pull systems, but in different ways.

💡Sprint

A Sprint is a time-boxed period in Scrum during which a specific set of work is completed by the Development Team. It usually lasts two weeks, and it's a period where the team focuses on delivering a potentially shippable product increment.

💡Sprint Backlog

The Sprint Backlog is a subset of the Product Backlog that the Development Team selects to commit to delivering during a Sprint. It contains the tasks that the team will focus on exclusively, and any new requirements that arise during the Sprint are typically deferred to a subsequent Sprint.

💡Scrum Board

A Scrum Board, also known as an Agile Board or Kanban Board, is a visual tool used by Scrum teams to track the progress of work items throughout the development process. It typically consists of columns that represent different stages of work, such as 'To Do,' 'In Progress,' and 'Done.'

💡Retrospective

A Retrospective is a meeting held at the end of a Sprint in Scrum, where the Development Team reflects on the work that was done, identifies what went well and what could be improved, and plans changes for the next Sprint. The goal is to enhance the team's performance and the efficiency of the development process.

💡Work In Progress Limits

Work In Progress (WIP) Limits are constraints placed on the number of tasks that can be in a particular stage of the workflow at any given time in Kanban. This helps to prevent overburdening team members, ensures a smooth flow of work, and allows for better control of the development process.

Highlights

Scrum and Kanban are Agile software development methodologies.

Value is delivered to the customer in small increments in Agile development.

The Product Owner organizes customer feedback into a prioritized list of features and User Stories, known as the Product Backlog.

The Scrum Master helps the Product Owner and Development Team to adopt and maintain good habits in Scrum.

The Agile Coach performs a similar role to the Scrum Master in Kanban.

Both Scrum and Kanban are PULL systems, ensuring work gets from Product Backlog to Customer in the shortest time.

Scrum teams work in Sprints, typically two weeks long.

Kanban is a continuous process without fixed-length sprints.

The pull system in Scrum is facilitated through Sprint Planning Meetings and the creation of a Sprint Backlog.

In Kanban, the pull system is implemented through Work In Progress limits on the Kanban board.

Daily stand-up meetings, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives are common practices in both Scrum and Kanban.

The aim of the Sprint Retrospective is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of subsequent sprints.

High-performing teams adapt Scrum and Kanban to suit their needs, rather than strictly following prescriptive rules.

A cheat sheet is available for download, covering the key points discussed in the video.

Transcripts

If you've found this video, the chances are that you've just done a search for the difference

between Scrum and kanban,

you've come to the right place.

Not only do I have a great video for you,

I also have a cheat sheet for you to download.

Hi this is Gary Straughan

Welcome to Development That Pays

Scum and Kanban are perhaps the best known of a number of Agile software development

methodologies

Let's break that down.

Software Development looks like this:

The Product Owner decides what to build

The Development Team builds it

and Customers use it, experience it, benefit from it in some way

What makes software development AGILE

is that VALUE is delivered to the customer in small increments

And, IMPORTANTLY, feedback is gathered from customers and fed back into the process.

It's the Product Owner's job to take input from customers

- and from stakeholders -

and organise it into a PRIORITISIED list of features and User Stories.

This list is known as the Product Backlog.

What happens between the Product Backlog and the Customer

is what distinguishes Scrum from Kanban.

As we'll see, each has its own routines and rituals

it's this person's job to help the Product owner and Development Team to adopt and maintain

good habits.

In Scum, the role is known as the Scrum Master.

In Kanban, the role is known as the Agile Coach.

Something that Scrum and Kanban have in common is that both are PULL systems.

Without getting into two much detail, the pull system ensure that work gets from Product

Backlog to Customer in the shortest possible time.

The pull system also helps to uncover bottlenecks in the process

Which helps to ensure that work gets from Product Backlog to the Customer

in the shortest possible time!

As you'll see in a moment, Scum and Kanban implement the pull system in two strikingly

different ways

Scrum teams work in a series of SPRINTS, most commonly two weeks in length.

Each Sprint it proceeded by a "Sprint Planning Meeting"

run by the Scrum Master and attended by the Product Owner and the Development Team

Together they select high priority items from the product backlog that the Development Team

believe it can commit to delivering in a single Sprint.

This is the "pull" I was talking about earlier.

The selected items are known as the SPRINT BACKLOG.

For the next two weeks, the Development Team focuses on working through the items in the

Sprint Backlog.

And ONLY those items in the Sprint Backlog:

in all but the most exceptional circumstances,

any new requirements that arise have to wait for the following Sprint.

It's common practice for Scum teams to use a board to track the progress of the work.

It's called a Scrum Board... or an Agile Board...

or even (slightly confusingly) a Kanban Board.

Each day during the Sprint there is a Scum Meeting:

it's a stand up meeting where the team takes a maximum of 15 minutes to discuss progress

and identify any "blockers".

At the end of the sprint, the work completed during the sprint is packaged for release

Any incomplete items are returned to the Product Backlog

The Sprint ends with two rituals:

The Sprint Review, which is a demonstration of new functionality to Stakeholders.

The Sprint Retrospective, which is an examination of what went well, what went badly and what

could be improved.

The aim of the Retrospective is to ensure that the next sprint is more efficient and

effective than the last.

And that's Scrum

Kanban does a few things differently.

There's no two-week sprint: Kanban is a continuous process.

There's no Sprint Backlog.

The "pull" system in Kanban happens in a different way, via Work In Progress limits.

Each column on the Kanban board has a Work in Progress limit

related to the team's capacity.

For example a team with two developers would set a limit between two and four items.

The lower the better.

Let's see the pull system in action.

When testing of a particular feature is complete, the corresponding ticket moves to the "Done"

column

The empty column is a signal to the previous column to send another ticket.

That's the "pull"

And when the in "Build" column is almost empty

is a signal to the team to select another high priority item from the Product Backlog.

That's the "pull" again.

Like Scrum, Kanban has :

Daily Stand-up

Demo for stakeholders

Retrospective

So now you know the key differences between Scrum and Kanban.

Two important things to say at this point:

Neither Scrum nor Kanban are as prescriptive as I may have made them appear.

High performing teams discover what works for them

and flex the system appropriately.

I've put together a CHEAT SHEET for you

that covers everything that we're talked about today

plus some additional notes that I think you will find useful.

You can grab your copy from my blog